Mighty Japan Endures as Leader

Mighty Japan Endures as Leader

After the devastating natural disaster in March, Japan’s semiconductor industry has
once again proven that it can overcome disaster and recover quickly. Japan
is home to a large number of semiconductor companies and has the largest share
of total installed fab capacity. In
addition, fabs in Japan lead in cutting-edge technology such as 24nm and 19nm
NAND Flash.

Japan houses the world’s two largest fabs, Flash Alliance’s Fab
4 and Fab 5 in Yokkaichi, reportedly designed for installed capacity of up to 220,000
and 240,000 wafers per month (300mm equivalents) (see figure 1).

Figure 1

Japan’s
technology advancement and capacity ramp can be attributed to Toshiba, its
largest semiconductor manufacturer, and the world’s second largest supplier of
NAND Flash chips. The Toshiba and SanDisk (U.S. based) alliance has started to
ramp its 24nm process technology and will soon implement 19nm process
technology. This will be one of the world’s smallest process technologies in
production.

For many years, Japan
has led the industry in overall installed capacity. Figure 2 shows share of
installed capacity by region (To simplify; only regions with 15% share or more
are shown). Japan’s capacity share
peaked in 2009 and has declined due to the closure of 17 fabs in the period
from 2009-2011 and because other regions have added more capacity. Still, Japan
remains ranked number one in overall fab capacity share.

Figure 2

In the 300mm fab segment, Europe
had the first pilot line with a Siemens/Motorola joint venture back in 1999.
Just a couple of years later, Japan
was among the first to enter 300mm volume manufacturing. While the U.S., Taiwan and Korea ramped up
300 mm capacity in 2002, Japan caught up quickly, and is now the #3 region
(following Taiwan and Korea) in 300mm fab capacity.

Figure 3

Japan shares second place with North America for operating
300mm volume fabs (with 14 fabs), while Taiwan leads the world with 21
fabs. As mentioned above, Japan
operates the largest 300mm fabs in the world.

Back in 1998, many Japanese chip makers made a sudden,
unified move to leave the DRAM market due to falling prices and market
volatility. From that time through about 2008, the country’s 5-inch and 6-inch
wafer fabs revived, and 8-inch fabs increased their ramp. It is not surprising
to see that most of the 300mm volume fabs in Japan (10 fabs) are dedicated for
Logic chips and only four for Memory, (mainly NAND).

Worldwide, Japan is the region with the greatest ongoing number
of fabs in volume manufacturing. Even including Discretes fabs, Japan
is the leading region as of October 2011 in number of volume manufacturing fabs
(see figure 4).

Figure 4

“The land of the rising sun” has led the industry for
decades. There is no doubt that Japan
will be one of the leaders in process technologies below 19nm. At the dawn of
the 450mm era, it remains to be seen how Japan will enter.

SEMICON Japan will showcases the latest technologies for Japan industry

Japan semiconductor industry is expected to lead in sub 20nm process and other leading-edge technologies and calls for further innovations in process equipment and materials. At SEMICON Japan 2011 (December 7 to 9), 900 companies from the global semiconductor supply chain will showcase their innovative products and technologies. This is the world's largest exposition for semiconductor equipment and materials. For 35 years, it has served as the ideal opportunity to extend your connection with the Japan market and suppliers. For more information about the event, please visit www.semiconjapan.org.

SEMI’s Worldwide
Dedicated Team

Since the last fab database publication in May 2011, SEMI’s
worldwide dedicated analysis team has made over 330 updates on more than 250
fab facilities in the database. Fifteen
new facilities have been added to the database, 10 of these LED fabs. The
latest edition of the World Fab Forecast (published August 30, 2011), lists
over 1,100 facilities, with more than 65 facilities starting volume production
beginning next year and into the future.
The next reports will be published at the end of November 2011.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast uses a bottom-up approach
methodology, providing high-level summaries and graphs; and in-depth analyses
of capital expenditures, capacities, technology and products by fab.
Additionally, the database provides forecasts for the next 18 months by
quarter. These tools are invaluable for understanding how the semiconductor
manufacturing will look in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and learning more about capex
for construction projects, fab equipping, technology levels, and products.